>demand OP explain some shit

>>17350616
>demand OP explain more than just 'some' shit

>>17350616
>Possible Actions:

Assess current situation while making our way to our quarters.

>Bring submarine up to periscope depth and arm load foward torpedo tubes 1-4.

>demand OP explain some shit

>>17350643

You're the Captain of the Graf Spee, the Kriegsmarine's finest pocket battleship. Since the War started a few months ago, you've been commerce raiding up and down the cost of South America, and been doing pretty well at it, too.

Until the 13th of December, when you almost blundered smack into a British light cruiser squadron dispatched to hunt you down. Your aerial spotter/recon pilot was able to identify the enemy ships in time for you to flee, but was critically wounded in the ensuing dogfight with the enemies own recon aircraft. You were able to recover her in time to lose your faster pursuers in a light rain squall and nightfall.

It's now December 26th, you've yet to take any prizes since the encounter, and what's worse, you've been shadowboxing with at least two Royal Navy cruiser squadrons since then.

>wat do

>"I am the very model of a modern Major-General!"

>>17350687
>Assess situation we want a status of the food/water/fuel on board.

We can probably assume that we have no friendly port in SA so I suggest to make a run for Africa.

>>17350687
a close call. getting caught up with those cruisers would've likely forced us into the river plate and changed the course of history.

I would suggest we consider re-assembling the false turrets and add a canvas and plasterboard second funnel, to change our shilouette, Captain Lansdorff.

>>17350726
How far has the construction work in Neuschwabenland progressed?

>>17350726

Just *thinking* about your ship's current state makes you want to punch babies. Little, ugly English babies.

Food, water and fuel supplies are just fine, since you've been rendezvousing regularly with your supply ship, the Altmark.

However, you've steamed over 30,000 nautical miles since the beginning of your cruise, and the Graf Spee's engines are in bad need of overhaul. And without your best spotter, your eyes in the sky are pretty limited - and Fleet Intelligence indicates no less then NINE enemy battle-groups are hunting for you.

>>17350761
A port stay is looking better all the time.

>>17350761
our best option is to look to crossing the equator and aiming to make for Brest for engine overhaul, possibly by using shipping lanes and disguising our profile.

>>17350738

You make a mental note to discuss re-building the camouflage you employed during your earlier four-day resupply rendezvous with the Altmark - perhaps this time adopting the visage of a neutral nation's battleship, instead of the HMS Renown. At the very least, it'll confuse the reports of any merchants that might spot you.

>>17350747

Your contacts in the upper brass have been making cute comments about an "Iron UberMesnch" or some bullshit like that, but you don't know how much weight to put in it.

>>17350761
Would the overhaul require a return to a friendly port and a lengthy stay in the yards, or is this the sort of thing we could do in just a day or three if we can find somewhere to hide out for that long?

>>17350794
>make for Brest

I have a sense that putting into a French port would be a bad idea, unless we want to make Christmas of 1939 more exciting than normal for the French Navy.

>>17350787

Your Executive Officer has been agitating to put in at the port of Mar del Plata in Argentina, a nation on friendly terms with the Reich. You're worried that the English will be waiting for you when you get there, however.

>>17350795
Do we have anyone on board who's fluent in either English, Spanish or Portugese? I'm thinking that American, Chilean or Brazilian would be the best flags to sail under for the time being.

>>17350761
I think we can assume that nine battle group hunting us is probably not worth the effort and that they are trying to scare us into doing something stupid.

>>17350818
Broadcast in a code we suspect to be broken about our current engine difficulties, make them seem worse than they actually are. Understating our ammunition supply would also be useful.

Then turn about at night and sail at high speed for Argentina.

>>17350837

All three, in fact. You yourself speak a few languages, having been well-raised and boarding-school educated.

Your options seem to boil down to the following:

>Make a straight run home
>Make for Mar Del Plata to tune up your diesels for as long as you dare
>Troll about in a disguise to thoroughly confuse the English hunting groups before trying either above option

>>17350795
We can easily change the shilhouette to that of a French Cruiser, the Algérie.

>>17350798
drydock repairs to the propellers for surface cavitation from running at speed so long, all diesils will require a complete stripdown and rebuild, likely new liners and bearings into the engines, at the least.
Do we know where U-boats are patrolling? we couls use them to slow the chase.

Head for the Falklands. Smash any British ship we find there. Then make for Ushuaia. We can do some repairs there before slipping into the Strait of Magellan and losing our pursuers in the tangle of islands there.

>>17350888
1. Troll
2. Mar Del Plata

My vote.

>>17350891
>drydock

Well, shit. Getting back to Germany while our engines are crapped out may prove difficult.

>>17350863
>Argentina.

is neutral. It is therefore limited by the the 13th Hague Convention, Article 12:
belligerent war-ships are not permitted to remain in the ports, roadsteads, or territorial waters of the said Power for more than twenty-four hours.

Uraguay is an option, but is a risk without apilot to navigate the river plate.

>>17350893
Seconded.
Getting the British to focus attention on the Falklands might purchase us enough time to get somewhere friendly.

>>17350899
I'm more for troll, while heading home as long as the ship can hanlde the north atlantic sea it seems better to head back home

>>17350888
Disguise. See if we can get the Argentinians to send a ship of about our weight class out to sea for long enough to let us pretend to be one of their ships and get some repairs. Promise that we'll give them the Falklands - excuse me, the "Malvinas" - after we win the war in exchange for the hassle.

>>17350813
>I have a sense that putting into a French port would be a bad idea, unless we want to make Christmas of 1939 more exciting than normal for the French Navy.

ARSE!
brainfade. thought it was december 1940 for a moment.

yeah. ignore that.

oops.

>>17350940
Do we have the authority to do that?

>>17350899
>>17350893
>>17350891
>>17350863
>>17350841

As you absentmindedly pace the decks of your battleship, you resolve upon a plan. There will be no hope of drydock repairs in Argentina - even IF the Argentinians were good enough allies to expect that kind of aid, once you finished you'd have half a fleet of British warships waiting just outside the harbor for you.

On the other hand, they certainly will enable better repairs to your engines then you could do at sea, and every bit will count. As for evading the enemy, going past the English-owned Falkands seems insane... but any English ships there will most likely be refitting, replenishing or both, and anything the Graf Spee can't outrun, it can kill.

Shall you talk this over with your XO?

>>17350973
>anything the Graf Spee can't outrun, it can kill.

If we survive this, bother command to upgrade our AA capabilities.

A lot.

>>17350920
Uruguay is also neutral, and since they're more friendly to the British they're more likely to be strict about the Hague Convention than the Argentinians are.

...although I just had a brilliant scheme. See if the German embassy or consulate can relocate to the waterfront in whichever Argentinian city we make port in, and make sure that the land purchase includes enough dock space for us to make port. Since our embassy is technically German soil, we wouldn't be in violation of the Convention if we stayed there for a bit, but we'd also force the British to attack us from neutral territory if they wanted to come at us.

>>17350990
Deligtfully trollish. I support it.

>>17350985
If we survive this, bother command to increase the amount of aircraft we can carry.

>>17350990
argh. I'm completely getting argentina and uraguay mixed up.

yes, urauay is the one which is affected by the hague convention, etc, not Argentina.

(in my defence, its close to 3 AM here, and my brain is jelly. apologies for confusing the situations, mein gruppenwaffencommandants.)

>>17350961
Preserving one of the small number of capital ships in the Kriegsmarine now is more valuable than keeping islands in a hemisphere we don't care about that we won't have until we win the war we're currently fighting. Basically, I think we can get it OK'd by our superiors.

>>17350973
Chat with the XO. Also, to further muddy the waters, see if that shipping chart we picked up recently indicates if there's likely to be any prizes nearby that we could disguise as the Graf Spee and send northward with a skeleton prize crew, broadcasting in our codes the whole time.

>>17351017
Converted carriers are piles of shit even if you know how to do carrier ops. We don't, and who knows if they'll ever finish the Graf Zeppelin.

What we really need is better radar. Fire control, air/naval detection and AA control could all stand some serious improvement.

>>17350985

Oh great, another one of those "aircraft" crazies. A few Ju-87s pop a few "tanks" in Poland and suddenly they think airplanes are going to rule the world.

Shaking your head and muttering darkly about "aircraft crazies," you swiftly trot up the ladders to your ready room, where to your surprise you find your Executive Officer, Kay, waiting for you. "Coffee?" he asks, gesturing at a coffee tray to one side. You accept.

"So," Kay begins as you sample your coffee, "have you reconsidered-"

"Yeah. I think you're right." you say.

Kay beams at you, delighted that a week of nagging has finally paid off.

"But first, I think we should skip down to the Falklands and attack the British dockyards there."

>his fucking face
>Actions?

>What we really need is better radar.

Fortunately for you, the Graf Spee is equipped with radar, and decent radar at that. Range of about 6-10 nautical miles, and accuracy margin of 50 meters or so - more then good enough for gunlaying.

As far as you know, none of the English ships hunting you are so equipped.

>>17351077
>>Actions?

Congratulate him on his snazzy looks.

>>17351077
attacking the falklands will only give british naval forces more notice of our location.
a more effective move would be to attack a final peice of shipping as far away from there as possible, allow them to send a distress/report to draw the ships to this location, while we move as quickly as possible to south america and lay up in buenos ares by january, do the repairs as fast as possible and get out before the river plate's mouth gets blocked off. .

>>17351077
If we get ungodly lucky, we could even see if there's anything nice we can steal from the rubble, but diverting our pursuers and probably sinking at least one of them would be acceptable.

>>17351128
They already know we're here. But assraping the Falklands would make it that much harder for them to support stuff that can hurt us, and might even let us bring them to battle on our terms. The best intelligence reports we have now indicate that there's only a handful of enemy cruisers in theater at this point, although there's probably more on the way.

>>17351077
Does Kapitän zur See Hans Langsdorff have to choke a bitch?

>>17351077

"Look at it this way," you point out. "You wanted to put in at Mar Del Plata for 24 hours of engine repairs and replenishment, right?"

"24 hours is better then nothing," Kay says, fidgeting. He's a thin, lanky man full of nervous energy, which enables his admirable performance under pressure, but also drives you fucking nuts sometimes. "And we're low on everything. We're going to have to fight past the Home Fleet to get back into the North Sea, and that'll be easier if the crew isn't on starvation rations the whole way home-"

You raise your hand, silencing the arguments you've spent a week listening to. "Yes. Yes, true. But what if we can stay in Argentina for longer then 24 hours?"

Kay blinks. "What? How?"

"Havarie," you say. "Right of sanctuary."

Kay snorts. "So that's your brilliant idea? Get our ass shot off so we can spend longer making repairs? You don't see a contradiction there?"

You shake your head. "Who says we're going to be damaged badly? Or at all?"

Kay takes a moment to process what you're saying. "Oh. But we need-"

"-a battle," you finish. "Just a small one. Enough to make newspaper headlines. Then we can limp into Argentina with enough cosmetic damage to make the press photographers swoon, wring as much out of Argentina as the German-friendly elements can get us, and get the hell out of there"

Kay frowns. "A good plan, but staying in any Argentinan port for longer then twenty-four hours risks letting the English come down on us. How are you going to handle that?"

"I've got a plan for that. Don't know if we'll be able to employ it just yet."

Possible actions:

>Bridge (change course and heading, check weather)
>Radio room (see if any intel updates have come in from Fleet Command)
>Engine room (see just how bad those engines are)
>Quartermaster (see how bad the supply/ammo situation is)

quartermaster. we must know our logistics before we take any further action.

>>17351185
>>Engine room (see just how bad those engines are)
>>Quartermaster (see how bad the supply/ammo situation is)

Worst things first.

>>17351185
Bridge first, then radio room. Have the chief engineer and quartermaster come talk with us in person, or send reports if they have more important work to be doing.

>>17351220
Second.

>>17351213
This. If we cannot perform as planned, our plan is void.
Also: Send Kay to the radio room with instructions to radio for intel and the setup of our little ruse.

We might also want to see if we can arrange for a replacement floatplane and pilot to meet us when we arrive in Argentina.

>>17351232
>>17351220


You scurry up the many ladders to your bridge. The ensign at the helm is more awake then the officer-on-deck, and his spine stiffens almost the instant you walk in the door.

You slip up behind the officer and pounce mercilessly. "WHO AM I!?" you roar.

"MEIN GOTT!" the hapless man screams, jumping a good foot in the air.

"Exactly," you say, satisfied. "Report?"

Taking a deep breath to calm himself, he nods at the windows, where the South Atlantic is tossing and turning in the grip of a heavy squall. "Visibility is six, perhaps seven miles at best," he says. You lean over to check the compass. Bearing Twenty-Four degrees, speed twenty knots. If you want to turn south for Argentinean ports and the Falklands, now would be the time.

>action?

>>17351296
Turn south. Regardless of whether we head for the Falklands as planned or head straight for Argentina, we need to get moving in that general direction now; if we don't find a way to lose our pursuers long enough to make repairs, we're fucked,

>>17351333
This.

>>17351296
Set course for the Falklands. Plan to avoid the regularly patrolled routes where possible.
We will try to get near them in disguise, shoot them while they are docked and make a run for Argentina's south.
Gott that?

>>17351333

You order the Graf Spee to turn South, following the 100-mile distant coast of South America. You keep the crew busy over the next three days with all sorts of tasks. Canvas turrets and wooden superstructure is erected, transforming the Graf Spee into the French cruiser Algérie. The Swastika on the bow and stern is politely covered up, and the French flag run up the mast. You're sure the British know where their allies warship is, but merchant ships are not always as well-informed.

You're in your cabin going over the quartermaster's report. It's as Kay said; your provisions are just sufficient to get you home, but crew morale and strength will suffer without fresh supplies, and the Altmark is all out. You still have sixty-odd prisoners aboard, as well, and they'll literally eat into your supplies until you get them safely off. The engines, as well, will get you home, but without some maintenance work in port they might fail you at a crucial moment if you push to flank speed - and you can't have any failures when you make the final run past the Home Fleet.

"Captain to Bridge! Captain to Bridge!" you hear Kay's voice growling over the PA system. You bolt from your cabin in a cyclone of paperwork, taking the steps/rungs two at a time on your way to the bridge.

"Captain, radar contact, bearing One-One-Seven, range, approximately sixteen-thousand yards," Kay says breathlessly as you enter.

"Any idea what it is?" you say, snatching up Kay's optics and peering out the bridge's forward window. A light squall is tossing the ocean, and steady rain is drumming down, limiting visibility. You can just make out something in the moderate swells.

"Nien. We're lucky we got it on radar. It's decent sized, though... six to eight thousand tons."

"A light warship or a heavy merchant," you conclude.

>Possible Actions:
>SHADOW
>CLOSE IN
>ATTACK

>>17351463
SHADOW

>>17351463
>transforming the Graf Spee into the French cruiser Algérie.
>You're sure the British know where their allies warship is

In he south Pacific, hunting for the Graf Spee, of course...

Seeing your hesitation, Kay chimes in.

As usual.

"Herr Captain, let's rush her. Even if it's a cruiser, we can still clobber it easily, and if it's a merchant we can get into radio jamming range quickly and force her to surrender."

"And how are we going to board her in this shit?" you say pointedly, gesturing at the swells rocking your ship about.

Your XO shrugs. "We don't. We just sit on her till the ocean calms enough."

He's got a point. Of course, if it IS a cruiser, closing to point-blank range is the worst thing you could possibly do, negating the range advantage of your powerful 11-inch guns and thick armor. But if you pussyfoot around at range, waiting for nightfall to let you slip up on the merchant with your radar set, you might be spotted and reported.

>>17351463
SHADOW and see if we can't get an idea of its speed from the radar; that should help us identify it.

>>17351538
I still recommend we shadow.

>>17351477
shadow it.

also check meteorological notes, is the weather likely to improve and increase viewing range, or are we safe for the next few days?

>>17351538
Have our electronic specialists stand by to jam its radio at a moment's notice, start feeding range information to the guns so that we can attack if necessary.

>>17351538
Get us some Seemann fluent in French to the mike and hail them, claiming we were the Algérie.
They will answer and we decide on what to do once we know who they are.

Mental note: when we get back to Germany, recommend that they stick a radar and a bit more armor on our flying boat. We're fucking blind out here compared to the larger British fleet and their network of ports, friendly governments and observers.

>>17351583
>>17351575
>>17351563
>>17351541

"What speed is she making?"

"Looks like ten knots or so," the Lieutenant on deck says. You frown. That's fast enough for a heavy merchant with a light load, especially in rougher seas... or a warship on patrol. You're only half a day's sail from the Falkland islands; it could be a Royal Navy cruiser tacking towards nearby shipping lanes, which they expect you to attack.

"We shadow it," you instruct. "Helm, match speed and heading." This time of year the squalls are violent and frequent, but rarely long-lived. Or they seem to be this year, anyways.

The Graf Spee successfully shadows the ship for two or three hours, maintaining the standoff distance at the edge of visibility, ensuring the merchant will be unlikely to spot you, but reducing you to radar for reliable tracking.

Eventually the squall blows itself out. The water is clearing and soon spotting will be easier. You ponder your options. You could carry on the pretense of the French Cruiser and converse with the merchant with your signal lamp. Or you could launch one of your Arado 196 floatplanes, which will get you a positive ID, but leave no doubt as to your identity - the French use no floatplanes looking anything like the Arado. Or you could charge in to close-range and ensure that whatever it is - cruiser or merchant - will send no radio messages before you silence it, one way or the other.

>Action?

>>17351715
Converse with the merchant.

signal lamp, get a response.

>>17351722
Fake French accent

>>17351715
Signal lamp. Sound general quarters just in case, or whatever the necessary readiness is for when we're probably going into combat but aren't 100% sure yet. And have all of our guns get a firing solution on that contact so that if it IS a warship, we can give it a 52-caliber greeting.

>>17351730
no need for a french accent with a lamp

>>17351730
You mean "converse in French, which we or another of our crewmen are fluent in", right?

In so far as that applies to a signal lamp anyway.

>>17351789
Why not radio?

>>17351806
Because we don't want to give the game away as quickly, which radio will do.

In particular, radio might be picked up by somebody other than the guy we're shadowing. A signal lamp, not so much.

>>17351806
"radio silence. requesting identity of merchant vessel. Enemy shipping suspected nearby."

>>17351830
Ah, ok.
Also minimizes the chance of anyone noticing where we are from.
I'm not very familiar with the tactics of ship-to-ship communication, please excuse my noobing.

>>17351774
>>17351730
>>17351729
>>17351722

You decide that subtlety is the last thing anyone would expect from a German, and a heavy warship timidly signalling a much weaker ship before closing is exactly the kind of pussy behavior anyone would expect of a Frenchman.

The signal lamp goes to work, demanding the ship identify itself with standard pre-war codes. It takes several tries before the ship notices you, even in the clearing conditions.

There's several seconds of silence, then the ship's signal lamp flashes back.

"French Freighter Bordeaux," the XO says.

Well, FUCK.

The intercom from the radio room clicks on. "Bogey transmitting! 'QQQQ, suspicious warship, French flag.'"

"QQQQ" is the code for a ship under attack by a raider.

"Jamming," the chief radioman adds helpfully.

>Possible actions:
>Continue the bluff
>SHUT UP FRENCHIES
>BOOM BOOM SHAKE DA ROOM

>>17351950
PUNISH THEM IN A MOST GERMAN MANNER

>>17351950
It's time to light that bitch up like a British cruiser at Jutland.

Sink it. open fire.

>>17351950
Keep 'em jammed, close in while signalling them continually about problems with the radio, whining about how the higher-ups don't give you better gear.
When we are in range to hit precisely, we take out their communication, then board and have their supplies transferred.
Then, we sink them.

>>17351980
You know they named a ship after the admiral who got blown up with his battlecruiser?

I wonder if that ship will blow up just as nicely.

>>17352066
Do it. If it's an AMC pulling any bullshit, though, we sink her. We can put the survivors ashore in the Falklands.

>>17351950
Get a fresh assessment from our radar, see if they can resolve her more clearly. I want to be sure they aren't pulling the same sort of trick on us that we were trying to pull on them.

>>17351999
>>17351980
>>17351975

You're under strict orders to follow prize rules, and you're immensely proud of having not killed a single innocent merchant sailor so far... but you're barely eighty miles distant from the English port of Stanley in the Falklands, and you don't have time for this shit.

"FIRE!"

The effect is instantaneous. The three massive 11-inch guns in the forward turret bellow, huge gouts of flame bellowing over the rain-streaked bow. Even in the weather, 16,000 yards is childs play for your optical rangefinders and radar-guided guns.

"Hit! Two hits!" Kay cries, sounding dismayed.

"Flank speed!" you bellow. "Are they still transmitting?"

"No," the chief radioman replies over intercom.

"Then hold fire."

A steady vibration begins throughout the ship as the Graf Spee builds towards full power. Two long minutes later you're able to see the damage through your spyglass. A huge hole gapes in the ships forward hull, above the waterline, and the upper superstructure of the bridge is shredded. You can also tell for sure that it's a merchant, as it claimed.

"Looks like she took an eleven-inch shell right in her masts," Kay says thoughtfully. As you peer through your glasses, you see a white flag go up and the signal lamp begins flashing the code for surrender.

The sea is calm enough to board her, if you wish.

>Action?

>>17352250
>>Action?

Render medical attention if any is needed.

board her with a boarding crew including the ships doctor and that surgeon, take on all crew, and secure the vessel. demand her inventory, and review what she is carrying, then send her to the bottom.

>>17352285
>and review what she is carrying

(if she is carrying provisions, we can think about taking some to ease the situation. otherwise, no delay. to the bottom she goes.)

>>17352250
Board her, offer medical attention, take any of the cargo that's worthwhile and any survivors, take the crew list if it wasn't just blown up, then sink her.

We couldn't risk her transmitting, but leaving her men to die now that there's no risk to us just isn't cricket.

>>17352250
If necessary, we can claim later that we couldn't take the risk she was an AMC under the circumstances. The fact that we stopped to offer assistance afterward should help with that.

And frankly AMCs are fucking dangerous. In the real world the Aussies lost a cruiser with all hands to a German one.

>>17352331
> In the real world the Aussies lost a cruiser with all hands to a German one.

Probably didn't help that they sailed up to point-blank range and had a cordial chat right up to the moment the German guns popped out of the deck.

Ignore the merchant, head towards the Falklands.

>>17352369
we do not leave a merchantman damaged and with radio destroyed to the mercies of the south atlantic.
We have honour, and we have integrity. we do not leave sailors to die.

>>17352369
We're playing as the one German captain who wasn't an utter toolbox.

>>17352391
Oh god, Hitler will have us executed before it's 1941.

>>17352391
not the only one.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Werner_Hartenstein

(the laconia incident)
On 12 September 1942 U-156 was patrolling off the coast of West Africa...He slowed speed at 22:00 and ordered a surfaced deflection shot from torpedo tubes I and III. the first torpedo detonated followed shortly by the second. He hoped to capture the ship's senior officers. To his surprise, Hartenstein saw over two thousand people struggling in the water. Hartenstein immediately began rescue operations. Laconia sank at 23:23.
At 06:00 Hartenstein ordered that the following message be sent on the 25m wavelength:[18]

"If any ship will assist the ship-wrecked Laconia crew, I will not attack providing I am not being attacked by ship or air forces. I picked up 193 men. 4°53 South/11°26 West – German submarine"

Open radio broadcast, from a u-boat giving away its exact position, to ensure the safety of civilians.

>>17352459
I don't think hitler gives a fuck about what we do (he's far too busy creaming himself with his u-boat and the bismark), we are currently following our orders anyways.

>>17352331
>>17352311
>>17352303
>>17352285
>>17352278

You order the Graf Spee to come alongside, and soon you've two boats full of Marines puttering out to the wounded Bordeaux. The ship proves to be a 7,290 ton heavy general-goods freighter.

Reports come back on short order, but they tell you little your spyglass, or even your naked eyes cannot. One of your three 11-inch shells hit the radio mast mounted atop the bridge, detonating it. The 280mm shell blast shredded the upper bridge with shrapnel, killing both the Captain and XO, and grievously wounding two merchant marine seamen.

The news weighs heavily on you. The captured merchant sailors have been treated more like guests then prisoners by you, and you've even struck up an odd sort of friendship with one of the captured captains. Still, you're responsible for a thousand men and one of Germany's precious capital ships, and you're only eighty miles from the Falklands. At least the wounded crew are being cared for by your able doctor, and the rest of the merchantman's crew are being crammed belowdecks.

"Captain," Kay says quietly.

"Hmm?"

Kay points at the Bordeaux. "She has a pretty good crane amidships. The boarding parties say it's in good working order, too."

"So?"

"What was that plan you were talking about earlier?"

You detail your sketchy plan to get some sort of decoy out in the water. Kay frowns.

>>17352584

"We'd need the government to lean on the Argentinians to go along with that. They're still neutral, so it'd take time, and that means we'd be stuck in port with overwhelming forces hedging us in, or playing hide-and-seek in the Straights till the Argentinians come 'round. Or," he says, pointing at the freighter, "that could be our decoy."

"How do you figure?"

"With the crane, it can embark and disembark one of our Arado seaplanes. It can fit a few men, if they crawl into the fuselage. We set that freighter sailing straight towards Germany, have them broadcast a radio message to Headquarters after they've gone a hundred miles or so. The British will triangulate the radio contact, guaranteed, and go off in the wrong direction. Then the men can board the Arado and rendezvous with us."

You snort. "Where?"

"It's got a good five-hundred mile range."

You shake your head. "If they push it. We were hoping to make for Ushuaia, and it's almost five hundred miles to there from right here, much less two hundred miles out to sea."

Kay shrugs. "Well, we could put a skeleton crew on it that can actually sail it, rather then just ride it... they could get a few hundred miles out. Much better, but we'd have to write them off as captured."

You eye the huge gash in the freighter's hull, recall the frequency of squalls in the South Atlantic, and silently write off those theoretical sailors as worse then "captured."

Kay's plan has merit, even if you ditch the aircraft part and use a write-off skeleton crew. On the other hand, it will take time, and if the freighter's SOS didn't get out, the British can't ignore powerful radio jamming only eighty miles distant. At flank speed, you've only got three hours before somebody comes sniffing about.

>Only the radio aerial was destroyed; your machine shop can whip up a new one o' those, and a mast, in less then an hour.
>OP needs ship pictures

>>17352649
>actions?

we do not leave crew to die needlessly, but the floatplane could work.

request volunteers for the mission. no man is to be ordered onto such duty.

have the mast repaired fast, and have it done.

>>17352649
Pushing flank speed will risk engine damage at an inopportune moment. If we want to be on the safe side, we have even less time. We'll be cutting it close if we do the decoy thing. Especially since the floatplane's range limits ours in turn. And the freighter is damaged, anyway.

I think we should just sink the damn thing and move on.

>>17352760
>>17352726

One vote for skeleton crew, one for sinking the fucker.

Either way, you're about to have your first real scrap, so decide quick so we can get on with it.

>>17352649
Mock her up as close to us as we can, make the battle damage look a bit more accidental (since we presumably don't have any actual combat to blame it on) then have her issue a mayday in the clear courtesy of our write-off crew. Have them claim that we want to make sure the survivors of our prizes are taken off just in case, so that there's a reason we'd be issuing a mayday. If we can fool the Brits into thinking we've had a serious accident, even for a little while, we improve our chances of escape.

For maximum classiness, we continue towards the Falklands and then, once we're there, we offload the survivors (excepting those wounded too badly to safely move and the doctors treating them) and sail away.

>>17352798
Sink it, no need to risk lives uselessly

>>17352814
>>17352812
>more ties

Also, how many people are still reading the thread? If it's only a few, I'll end this one soon and rejoin you corpulen/tg/entlemen tomorrow in the mid-afternoon. The commencement of your first surface action should draw in some new readers.

>>17352726
>>17352760
>>17352798

160km distance for the broadcast is barely worth it, for the time and work. we can be 30km away in an hour, and any mishap to the damaged hull and we risk losing crew, and the seaplane. let us either turn due north and pass through the falkland strait and make for the north, or make for argentina without delay.

>>17352880
I'm this guy >>17352760 and I won't be here for much longer. Starting off with the awesome naval combat tomorrow is fine with me.

>>17352880
Sink her.

And I recommend getting to the start of the surface confrontation, then firing the first shots tomorrow. Against the Cumberland, I presume?

>>17352903
>160km is hardly worth it

Indeed; though that loses you nothing (IF the floatplane isn't damaged unloading, loading, unloading, IF the pilot manages the tricky navigation, ect,) 100 NM will only mislead the English for a few hours. The skeleton crew can take the freighter much further, but then they'll be on a shot-up freighter in the South Atlantic, all alone...

>>17352903

Indeed, it's about that time 'o night. BATTLESHIP QUEST will reconvene here tomorrow around 6-7 PM.

Prepare the appropriate orfice(s.)

>>17352958
>Against the Cumberland, I presume?

Quite right, as well as some other vessels which happen to be nearby. It should be one hell of a scrap, but if you manage it, you get to shell Port Stanely.

And considering who the Graf Spee is named after, that's going to be fucking DELICIOUS karma. 11'' rifled karma.

Anon will be declaring move/fire by the end of OP post tomorrow, so don't worry.

>>17352959
Should it be Schlactshiffe Quest, given what ship we're captaining?

>>17352992
Given that we're a week and a half past the historical Battle of the River Plate, this could mean that both the Ark Royal and the Renown have made it into theater.

...are we going to get the first surface ship kill of a carrier six months ahead of schedule?

could I just point out that the Graf Spee's radar has a range of about 120km/70 miles (technically double that, but not in real-life conditions) for ship detection.

10km radar range was the system prototype developed in 1934, and long since upgraded.

>>17353004
Panzerschiff Quest.

>>17352992
>historical irony off the port bow!

You know, I didn't even think of that when I recommended hitting the Falklands.

I'm not sure if the historical parallel is a good thing or a bad thing.

>>17353052

Well, SHIT. I did not know that. Do you know the name of the upgraded radar? Seerkat isn't it, I take it?

>>17353089
Not sure if the new version was installed on Graf Spee yet, since it was only rolled out in '39. You'd probably need to find a better source than Wikipedia to be sure; I expect there's something on the Interwebs somewhere.

>>17353089
its seetakt, but not the original.
Graf Spee and Königsberg were both fitted with the more powerful, upgraded 500mhz version which is closer in performance to the Freya land-based installation, than the early first seetakt system.

it was accurate enough to be able to be used as a rangefinder and direction identifier for a ship to within 50m.

>>17353112
>Not sure if the new version was installed on Graf Spee yet,

the Dete-1 system was not, the 500mhz upgraded version of the original version was.

so not quite the 120mile range of the later version, but a lot more than 10km. that system was upgraded after the spanish civil war.

(and incidentally, no british ships had radar at that date... making this a potential cat and mouse of many cats, but a mouse with much better eyesight.)

>>17353128
What sort of range did it work out to, though?

That's kind of important to know.

Also, it looks like her fire control radar probably had a range of 20-25km.

Well, if we can make it back to Wilhelmshaven, impressing the importance of radar and actually using it upon Admirals Raeder and Doenitz will be goddamn crucial. The limeys and frogs have enough ships that they can just carpet the ocean with them and get lucky; we need to be able to find and identify our targets before they can find us if we don't want our main role in the war to end up as creating the world's most expensive collection of artificial reefs.

>>17353176
I hopes it's enough range we could "embark" some V1 and aim them...German having missiles gives me nightmare at night.

>>17353167

Finally looked it up. I see where we got confused. All distances are being given in nautical miles, since as far as I know the nautical mile was and is an international standard, used by all navies for measurement (in much the same way altitude is measured in feet by pilots and airports around the globe, regardless of local standards.)

The Graf Spees 500mhz Seekrat set had a range of 20km, or 10 nautical miles.

OP it looks like I was too late for this but I wanted to congratulate you on a SUPERBLY run quest, one of the best in months. Writing style, player freedom, humor, interesting plot and especially historical accuracy... wow, just wow. Kudos also to you players who didn't derp around and massively knew your shit. This was an excellent read.